AAC Football: Takeaways Becoming Cincinnati Bearcats Signature

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Luke Fickell spent more than a decade helping the Ohio State Buckeyes defense become one of the most opportunistic units in college football. In his last season in Columbus before taking the job at Cincinnati, his defense ranked fourth in the nation in interceptions per game and they ended their season as one of four teams in the College Football Playoff.

Now in his third year with Cincinnati, his fingerprints are all over the team’s turnaround and, specifically, the Bearcat defense. Cincinnati (6-1) is now nationally ranked (No. 18) after stringing together a five-game winning streak, and the defense is clearly a big reason. They’ve been collecting takeaways at a rapid pace in conference action — 14 in three AAC football games (4.7 per) — and overall, they rank No. 2 among all FBS teams in takeaways per game.

Cincinnati Bearcats Defense vs. AAC (2019)

  • Week 6: 4 takeaways vs. #18 UCF (1 FR, 3 INT)
  • Week 7: 5 takeaways vs. Houston (1 FR, 4 INT)
  • Week 8: 5 takeaways vs. Tulsa (3 FR, 2 INT)

Cincinnati also ranks in the Top 5 in interceptions per game and, against UCLA to start the season, they forced the Bruins into four turnovers.

“They work at it,” Fickell said in his postgame presser after beating Tulsa 24-13 at home, “but I think it’s more comfort.”

“When you become good at what you do, you become a lot more aggressive,” he added. “Some of those things are showing up, as well as the energy.”

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“We’re putting some shots on backs and really trying to make an emphasis to rake at balls,” he noted, in reference to the three fumble recoveries against Tulsa. “We could have had a couple other, but five turnovers in one game is huge.”

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You can expect the turnovers to keep coming, especially in their next three games. Cincinnati plays the three worst teams in the AAC East over the next three weeks (at East Carolina, UConn, at South Florida); all three have losing records, as of October 20th. Having said that, the Bearcats close the season with two tough AAC football teams — Temple (home) and Memphis (road).